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It is copyright © Joel Chace and Jacket magazine 2009. See our [»»] Copyright notice.
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Joel Chace: Six poems:

Scaffold, 19–24

the rules say                                             that         but vertical


all bets are off                                         all (these)                                             rows





are kings’                                   game-board physics                                   (columns


rows   spaces                                             hinged and threaded





an) atmosphere                              law still                              that one


must jump                 must                         leap (to (seize)                             what





impossible) flying                           made                                             only by


flight’s                                   only             first                                   leap    

frames                                             inside a frame         window


standing on                                             high mullioned dazzlement





of air                         beginning from                              one                             lucency


(awful)                                                     solidity                                                       its





solitariness that becomes                     a tipped


and fly-eyed                              sconce’s     lens                              last





of clarity’s straight                                             shattering


take(s)                              on the near           final                              frame    

aleatoric plaid                                               however


planned                                        (as)   sky or scraping the barn’s





farthest motes           stitched                                             melody’s


vein(s)                         scored leaves         archived                         and arched





across that   tall abeyance


blood                              blended             --                              maculate piping





each rudeness                              every grace                             bolt                              stay


note(d)                       a linking                                             fine and fast    

as much casting                                             a net                                             as casting


lines     entire heat                                                  of doing





then brown or flaming                       disappearances


blank                                             refusals                                             green eruptions --





strand by strand                                       more liquid


than glinting                    darkening               deepening                    watery shelves  --





all       happens for reasons


which                         (being) made up     make                         (the real) this

head-high stalks                         stripped             dried                         wind-driven


down                       on a field                                   laid against the night  --       --





turning                                               then                                                  turning across


(fresh) furrows                                             verse                                             and converse





breakings               flung               cropped               so               so               until


(and) brilliants fall                                       shrinkings                                       gatherings





are vested                              found and founded                              nutty


piebald piping         improbable as air

uninterrupted                                                 oceanic wash


gusts cross-cutting                                     wave crests                                        what





leaps                              leaps             over great troughs                              (and)


all(must be)                              upended                             --                              gravity





allows           ease                                             end-nearing trapeze


dream of al(l)ways                                           fingertips





flipping                                       owning the grasped bars


the crazy                                     whole                                                 contraption

Joel Chace

Joel Chace has published poetry and prose poetry in print and electronic magazines such as 6ix, Tomorrow, Lost and Found Times, Coracle, xStream, Three Candles, 2River View, Joey & the Black Boots, Recursive Angel, and Veer. He has published more than a dozen print and electronic collections.  Recently from BlazeVox Books is Cleaning the Mirror:  New and Selected Poems, and from Paper Kite Press is Matter No Matter, another full-length collection.  Just out from Country Valley Press is Scaffold, the first part of an ongoing poetic sequence, and "(b)its," from Meritage Press.  For many years, Chace has been Poetry Editor for the experimental electronic magazine 5_Trope.